First they came for the catalogues. Now it’s the standalone stores – Charlton’s Argos Extra store has only a few days left before it moves down the road to share space with Sainsbury’s.
The last day of trading at the standalone Argos on Bugsby’s Way will be Thursday 2 December – with the new Argos store inside Sainsbury’s opening the following day, Friday 3 December.
Argos was bought by Sainsbury’s five years ago, and all its standalone stores are gradually being closed in favour of smaller outlets inside the chain’s supermarkets.
You can beat the queues at Sainsbury’s… at a cost
Living near a load of supermarkets has its downsides – litter, dumped trolleys, rat-running – but if you live within about three kilometres of Sainsbury’s at Charlton Riverside, the store giant wants to make your life a little easier.
The store is now offering one-hour deliveries through the Sainsbury’s Chop Chop app – select up to 20 goods, and they should come to you within an hour. The scheme has been trialled with bicycles in the Southwark area – we wait to see whether Sainsbury’s staff will be puffing up Charlton Church Lane with your last-minute shopping, or dicing it on the Woolwich Road.
This all comes at a cost – delivery is £4.99, so competitive with taking a minicab, although there are some opening offers; your first order is free if it’s over £15. Watch for the price of goods too – our keen-eyed Charlton Champion consumer expert has noticed some goods are more expensive (1.25 litres of Coke Zero currently £1 in store, £1.15 on the app).
Of course, you could walk to the store and get a bit of exercise – but if you’re in a hurry, or it’s raining, this could come in very handy if you’re happy to pay extra.
Three kilometres takes in Greenwich and Woolwich town centres and Blackheath Village, so there’s bound to be a lot of demand. We haven’t tried it yet, but we’d be interested to hear from readers who have – the comments are open. You can download the app at chopchopapp.co.uk.
Asda has been trading on the Bugsby’s Way site since 1984
Sainsbury’s and Asda are likely to have to sell one of their Charlton stores if the two supermarket giants are allowed to go through with their plans to merge, according a report from the competition watchdog.
The two superstores are among 629 locations where a tie-up between the two companies could result in a “substantial lessening of competition”, the Competition and Markets Authority said in a provisional report on the merger plan, released on Wednesday.
The two supermarket giants announced plans for a tie-up last April, and it has been widely reported that the combined company would take one pound out of every three spent by UK grocery shoppers. But the CMA says a combination of the two firms could mean shoppers would “face higher prices, reduced quality and choice, and a poorer overall shopping experience across the UK”.
While the strength of the CMA’s concerns about the merger could force the two companies to abandon their plans, Sainsbury’s and Asda have said they want to go ahead with the tie-up.
The full report was made public on Thursday afternoon. As well as the two Charlton stores, the CMA has raised issues about stores in Lewisham, New Cross, Abbey Wood, Kidbrooke, Peckham, Deptford, Old Kent Road, Isle of Dogs, Bexleyheath and Belvedere.
Both retailers also have petrol outlets within close proximity of each other, as Sainsbury’s retailed the filling station from its former Greenwich store, now replaced by an Ikea. These outlets are also highlighted by the CMA.
As well as their two Bugsby’s Way superstores, Sainsbury’s also has a Local supermarket on Charlton Church Lane. This is not included in the CMA’s list of concerns.
The Charlton Riverside Sainsbury’s store opened in 2015
Of the two Charlton superstores, the Asda branch is arguably the most vulnerable to a sale. The store has been trading for 35 years, making it the second oldest in the Charlton retail area (Makro is 10 years older) and its facilities are dated. It could be seen as a target for Lidl, which is currently applying for planning permission to convert two units in an adjacent shopping park into a supermarket, or the new Tesco low-cost brand Jack’s.
The Charlton store only opened in 2015, and there have been anecdotal reports that trading has been slower than expected – one consequence of its move from east Greenwich was that the store was cut off from shoppers who would take a bus down the hill from Blackheath. But a new store could be attractive to a rival such as Morrisons, which lacks a store between Peckham, Welling and Thamesmead.
The full Competition and Markets Authority report will be released in April.
The new superstore store complex looms over housing on Woolwich Road
The developer behind Sainsbury’s and M&S paid Greenwich Council nearly £1.5 million to help secure planning permission, the Charlton Champion can reveal. But none of this money has been spent in the Charlton area – and promised facilities at the development haven’t materialised.
The firm behind the Charlton Riverside Retail Park, LXP RP (Greenwich 3) Ltd, agreed to pay £1,484,927 to Greenwich Council in Section 106 payments. These are aimed at easing the impact of large construction projects on local communities.
But none of the money has been spent in Charlton – with a chunk of the money going to projects in Woolwich instead.
The Charlton Champion used the Freedom of Information Act to find out what LXB paid Greenwich Council – and how it is being spent.
Making a difference in [insert store name here]
So far, £170,685 has been spent. The first £150,000 has gone to “employment and training” – believed to be Greenwich Local Labour and Business, the council’s employment agency, which is largely funded by these payments. GLLaB is due to receive a further £284,613 from this project.
The remaining £20,685 has been spent on a “public safety” contribution – the council’s CCTV control room in Woolwich.
The other sums have been allocated, but not spent. Asked where they would be spent, the council merely said on “schemes within the Royal Borough of Greenwich”.
£303,120 has been earmarked for “town centre management”. This sum won’t be spent in Charlton – instead, it is likely to go to Woolwich, Eltham and/or Greenwich.
A huge motorway-size sign adds to street clutter at Charlton Church Lane
£209,202 has gone to “public realm” – effectively, making streets look nicer. Again, there’s no pledge to spend this money locally – despite the poor state of the area’s streets (worsened by the huge SUPERSTORE signs that have appeared in recent weeks). A further £217,307 has gone to “environmental health”.
Finally, £300,000 has gone to “bus service enhancements”. Again, it’s not clear quite where this money will be spent. There are currently no plans to enhance bus services in the Charlton area, while Transport for London rejected proposals to extend bus route 202 from Blackheath Standard to serve the new store.
There’s an additional £449,715 too – this is a community infrastructure levy, collected by boroughs on behalf of City Hall to help pay for Crossrail.
So far, so disappointing. But if local groups want to start lobbying for improvements to the area, there’s where the cash is.
It helps to get the small things right…
Should residents have expected anything different?
Well, when the plan was first announced, developer LXB held several meetings with local people, who formed the Charlton Riverside Action Group.
Both CRAG’s prime movers have now moved out of the area, but other groups such as the Charlton Society and Charlton Central Residents’ Association also had a hand in these talks – designed to address fears that the complex would add to already-bad traffic congestion in the area..
It appears, though, that these talks they were largely for nothing. Those who took part in the talks believed they were getting…
The proposed exit would have been on long-disused railway land to the left of this photo
A new entrance to Charlton station: One of the proposals to encourage people to travel to the new complex by public transport included opening a new entrance to Charlton station at Troughton Road, nearer the western end of the Kent-bound platform. This plan, however, appears to have stalled.
Bus arrivals information in the store: Residents were told the store would feature boards showing bus times (you’ll see these in North Greenwich bus station and the new Greenwich University building in Stockwell Street). They never materialised. Meanwhile, a new bus stop on Bugsbys Way doesn’t even have a shelter.
Legible London signs installed by Lewisham Council on Blackheath
Local signposts: Another plan was to make it easier to walk to the store by installing Legible London signposts in the local area – the black and yellow signs used in Blackheath Village and Woolwich Town Centre. This scheme could have been rolled out to make it easier for visitors to find Charlton House, Charlton Lido, Charlton Athletic and other attractions. Nothing has appeared.
Why does this matter? Well, Charlton’s riverside will soon undergo huge redevelopment – community groups are waiting for a new masterplan to be announced. If local people aren’t getting anything from current developments, what hope is there when the diggers start going in by the river?
It also matters because community groups believed they had a scheme that could have delivered tangible benefits for residents. Instead, those locals haven’t seen any of those benefits – and are suffering from rat-running as cars head down side roads to the new supermarket.
A few weeks ago, this website asked if Charlton needed a regeneration plan. We now that thanks to this development – and others – there is money available, even if only to tidy up the public realm and put some signs up to direct people around. If community groups want to take this seriously, then they should be watching where the cash from these developments go – and making sure SE7 gets more than scraps.
Some local blogs do the opening of new pop-up boutique vintage street food cat cafes. In Charlton, we get to do whacking great supermarkets.
16 years ago, Jamie Oliver opened the “eco” Sainsbury’s at east Greenwich. That store closed without ceremony last night, and the supermarket giant has reopened a mile down the road, in a less impressive building.
Today’s opening didn’t have anyone off the telly there, but it did have new local MP Matt Pennycook and Greenwich Council’s regeneration cabinet member Danny Thorpe on hand for the inevitable photocall for weekly council rag Greenwich Time.
With a brief apology for keeping us all waiting, the store opened to the public at the stroke of nine o’clock.
So what’s it like inside? Well, there’s a greater emphasis on homeware, electricals and clothing. And it’s a bit weird walking through a perfectly-stocked supermarket where nobody’s bought anything yet.
In short, it looks like any other supermarket. What did you expect?
But it’ll be a rude shock for those used to the curved lines and natural daylight of the Greenwich store – likely to be flattened and replaced with an Ikea, although the Swedish furniture giant doesn’t have detailed planning permission yet.
So, how will the new store do? It’ll certainly lose some custom in the short term – Transport for London has refused developer funds to help extend bus route 202 from Blackheath to the new store, and many Greenwich Millennium Village residents may decide it’s a schlep too far.
With the trends towards home delivery and smaller stores, it’ll be interesting to see how things pan out. A wider range of goods may encourage customers to stay longer. It’s worth noting this new store is not a 24-hour branch. And with the newish Sainsbury’s Local on Charlton Church Lane thriving, the chain is clearly hedging its bets.
How the new store fits in with its surroundings is an issue. I’m not sure it stands up to past promises made to local groups. Rat-running and traffic is likely to be a problem. Access isn’t particularly cycle-friendly. And the new pedestrian crossing – which appears to be in the wrong place – has been already been hit by a driver.
But the next part of the story comes in a couple of weeks – for M&S is opening on 9 July. It’s likely this retail complex will be both a benefit and a burden – just how much of each, we’ll see in the weeks and months to come.
A week to go until the new Charlton Sainsbury’s opens (9am on Wednesday 24 June, with M&S due to follow three weeks later), but there had been a set-back for the supermarket – Greenwich Council refused plans to stick a giant four-metre high illuminated logo on the store roof, along with a smaller sign by Bugsby’s Way and a totem facing Woolwich Road.
Except that this week… a giant four-metre high sign has appeared on the store roof, along with a smaller sign by Bugsby’s Way and a totem facing Woolwich Road.
Looks a bit like something’s dribbling out of the lettering…
No, we don’t know what’s happening either. Nor are we quite sure why the next door M&S also features a whacking great big sign (our best guess is it may not have needed permission as it’s partly below roof level). But we are trying to find out.
Of course, there are bigger issues with a whacking great big supermarket in a residential area – traffic, wasted space, and the building’s very existence when we desperately need new homes. But if the small things (such as a sign) can’t be fixed, what hope is there for the big things?
Thanks to Pete M for the tip-off.
4.20pm update: A very quick response from Greenwich Council, which says it has opened investigations into both the Sainsbury’s and M&S signage.
18 June update: Greenwich Council’s confirmed the M&S sign does have planning permission, given last December.
Final work is taking place at Charlton’s new Sainsbury’s/ M&S complex, which will come to life in six weeks – the ‘old’ Greenwich Sainsbury’s set to close on Tuesday 23 June with its Charlton replacement opening its doors the following the day.
Some bits of work still need to be done, though – such as signage. If you’re expecting the new store to have subtle signs, think again – a giant four-metre high Sainsbury’s logo is due to be plonked on the roof of the store, according an application sent to Greenwich planners.
It’s a far cry from the more subtle sign that sits below the roof level of the Greenwich store – an image of which is still being used on recruitment ads for the new outlet.
If you’ve any strong views on the signs, be sure to let Greenwich planners know – head to the council’s planning website and search for reference 15/0835/A – comments need to be in by 26 May, which is leaving the timescales rather tight…
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The Charlton Champion 